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CANDLE FLAME 

A PLAY 

[jhr reading only] 



BY 

KATHARINE HOWARD 

Author of "Eve," "The Book of the Serpent," etc. 




BOSTON 
SHERMAN, FRENCH ^ COMPANY 
1914« 






Entered at Stationers* Hall 

Foreign Rights Reserved 

Translation Rights Reserved 



Copyright, 1914 
Sherman, French & Company 



MAY 23 1 9 14 

©CI,A376018 
4i^ / 



TO THE AUTHOR OF 
"CANDLE FLAME*' 

Like aromatic wax your genius bums. 
Is it the wholesome bayberry I scent, 
Or subtile pungence of the Orient? 
Swift in your thoughts, as in enchanted urns. 
The seething, pregnant substance deftly turns 
To quickening shapes. So, dipped in images. 
Molded by art, the beauty you express 
Becomes a candle for which the dark Earth 
yearns. 

But the flame! Was it kindled in the East, 
By the lavish Persian rose whose petals are 
Florescent fires? Or was it just a star 
Touched your taper and blessed it for the feast ? 
How the ochre rose fades to ashen night, 
And still the silver flame spirals its light! 

Chaeles Pearson Anthony. 



TO 

ELISABETH 



NOTE 

"Les enfants de cire jouaient un grand 
role dans la sorcellerie du moyen age, 
Quiconque voulait faire tomber son en- 
nemi en langueur fahriquait une petite 
figure de cette espece et la donnait a une 
jeune fille, qui la portait emmaillottee 
durant neuf mots dans son giron: les neuf 
mois revolus, un mauvais pretre baptisait 
V enfant, a la clarte de la lune, dans Veau 
courante d'un moulin. On lui ecrivait au 
front le nom de la personne qu'on voulait 
faire mourir, au dos le mot Belial, et le 
sortilege ne manquait jamais d'operer," 

Barzaz-Briez. 

Hersart De La Villemarque. 



LIST OF CHARACTERS 

THE WOMAN 

GENEVIEVE 

THE OLD SEIGNEUR 

SIR YALVAIN 

THE NURSE 

THE SERVING MAN 



CANDLE FLAME 



ACT I 

SCENE I 

A forest in Bretagne, 

A shrine in the forest. Two are talk- 
ing — a woman and a young girl. They 
are seated on a large flat stone and do 
not see the shrine. . . . It is a sombre 
forest^ but here and there the sunlight 
pierces through the trees. It strikes 
obliquely across the shrine like a burning 
shaft, and touches lightly the brow of the 
young girl. 

The Woman 

It cannot do you harm; it is made of 
wax. 

The Young Girl 

The candles were made of wax that 
burned around my mother. There were 

[1] 



CANDLE FLAIVIE 

so many candles, they burned straight up 
to heaven. Oh! it was beautiful! They 
seemed like spirits telling me that I must 
do no wrong. 

{The Woman trembles,) 

The Woman 

If you will wear this image next your 
heart — for nine months near your heart 
— I will give to you a necklace of rubies 
. . . rubies red like drops of blood. 
They will show well on your white neck. 

The Young Girl 

Like drops of blood? Oh! I would 
rather have them pearls. {The Woman 
shivers.) This image has a look like 
someone I have forgotten. ... I must 
have dreamed it. {She caresses the 
waocen image and laughs softly, ) I never 
had a doll so small. . , . The time has 

[2] 



CANDLE FLAME 

passed for me to play with dolls. ... I 
have had fifteen years. 

The Woman 

That is the reason you should hide it; 
the others would make sport of you. 

The Young Girl 

Oh! a secret! a secret! But you said 
I must not tell ; a secret is not sweet until 
'tis told. I could tell Nurse — but no. 
... I told her of the time I met you by 
the fountain and she was angry. . . . 
When I told her how you changed from 
old to young — how sometimes you grew 
beautiful — she said you were a Druid 
Priestess. (She crosses herself,) Have 
you not heard the legends? Oh! she was 
angry; she forbade me going to the foun- 
tain; she said perhaps you were the spirit 
of a Priestess, for in the ancient time this 

[3] 



CANDLE FLAME 

was a sacred forest, a Druid forest where 
maidens were sacrificed. Nurse said you 
might have done me harm. ( T'he Woman 
shrinks away from her,) Are you the 
spirit of a Priestess? For when you look 
at me sometimes I am afraid. ... I feel 
a chill go over me — and yet I come again. 
. . . {She caresses the image as if it were 
a doll,) 

Why do you love me enough to give 
me this image which you hold so dear? If 
I were beautiful, then I should know you 
could not choose but love me — all beauty 
is beloved. 

When Nurse sees me looking in the 
great mirror in the banquet hall, she calls 
me to come away — for fear the mirror 
may crack and fall out of its frame. The 
angels all have yellow hair, and mine? 
There is no name for it, she says, unless 
she calls it with my eyes — which are not 
even blue, but pansy. I grieve about it 

[4] 



CANDLE FLAME 

some . . . and yet . . . sometimes when 
I am looking, I like myself . . . perhaps 
it is one always likes one's self — do you? 

(A vivid shaft of sunlight pierces through 
the trees and strikes across the eyes of 
The Woman,) 

The Woman 

Oh! oh! Something has blinded me — 
as if a sword struck me across the eyes. 

{They rise and see the shrine in a glory 
of sunlight, , , , The Woman shrinks 
hack into the shadow,) 

The Young Girl 

Oh! Look! look! It is a shrine! 
See! see! the lovely sunlight falling on 
Our Lady. {She laughs and holds the 
image out into the light,) 

[3] 



ACT II 

SCENE I 

The garden of a ruined chateau on the 
edge of the forest. The Seigneur old and 
blind sits sleeping in his chair. The old 
Nurse is knitting and the aged Serving 
Man goes bach and forth in his work from 
chateau to garden. All is worn and an- 
cient; the only youth and freshness is the 
young girl Genevieve, 

The Nurse 

There is something you hide. You do 
not talk of late. What is it that you find 
to keep you silent? It is no good thing 
— ^no good thing is hidden. What is it 
that is hidden in the forest? 

[6] 



CANDLE FLAME 

Genevieve 
There is a shrine. 

The Nurse 
A shrine? 

Genevieve 
Yes, a shrine — an ancient shrine. 

The Nurse 

How can that be ? A shrine, and I not 
know of it? 

Genevieve 

It is so old, and green with moss. A 
little path leads up to it and the sun shines 
through the trees upon Our Lady. It is 
the only place in all the forest where the 
sun shines. 

[7] 



CANDLE FLAME 

The Nurse 

Aha! I will go with you to see the 
shrine. 

Geneviea^e 

No! no! It is too far! The path is 
full of rocks and roots of trees to trip you 
up, and places hard to climb. 

The Nurse 

Ah! When I had my legs, no goat 
could climb so well as I. 

{The Old Seigneur rouses from his nap 
and searches around for his tall gold- 
headed stick. It has fallen so that he 
cannot reach it.) 

The Old Seigneur 

Genevieve ! Genevieve ! Where is the 
child ? Genevieve ! 

[8] 



CANDLE FLAME 

Genevieve 

Here, here, Grandfather, close to you. 
Here is your stick. Grandfather. {She 
places it against his hand.) 

The Old Seigneur 

Come, read the book again. We left 
off in an interesting place — about the 
purification of their sins. The candles 
had been lighted. 

{The Nurse moves near to listen.) 

Genevieve {reading slowly) 
'And while the candles burned, their 
souls went up to God. Their carnal bod- 
ies were the wax, the flames their souls — 
and when the flames had burned away 
their sinful bodies, their spirits were puri- 
fied and safe in heaven.' 

O Grandfather! may I not read about 
the troubadours? 'Tis so much easier, it 

[9] 



CANDLE FLAME 

will cheer you {she caresses him timidly) 
— that part about the cavaliers and the 
gay ladies. They were so beautiful, 
Grandfather — ladies such as you used to 
know. 

The Old Seigneur 

Yes! yes! We will have that. Begin 
about the ladies. 

Genevieve 

Oh! thank you, Grandfather. I will 
fetch the book. {She runs into the cha- 
teau, returning quickly with a large il- 
luminated folio,) 

The Nurse {with pride) 
She will please you. Sir; she reads well. 

Genevieve {reading) 

* "Now bring the maid before me," said 
[10] 



CANDLE FLAME 

the Lady Jocelyn, *'that I may know if 
she be fah\" But when the maid was 
brought, she could not see her beauty for 
the soiled and ragged gown. 

' "I cannot judge of beauty in such 
guise," said the Lady Jocelyn. "Go, 
take the maid among you, and bathe her 
feet, and comb her yellow hair, and clothe 
her in a silken gown, and put a golden 
chain and ornaments upon her, that I may 
justly know if she be fair." ' 
(Genevieve closes the book, dropping on 

her knees and clasping her hands on her 

grandfather s arm,) 

O Grandfather! I am so old! Can I 
not have the key? This gown of faded 
green I wear is like a rag! Indeed, 
Grandfather, I am like the 'ragged maid.' 
{She caresses her grandfather.) The 
key! the key! Grandfather! may I not 
have the key? Let me unlock the chest 
and wear my mother's gowns, that I too 

[11] 



CANDLE FLAME 

may be beautiful. I am so old. {She 
whispers in his ear,) 

The Old Seigneur 
So old. ... It seems the other day . . . 

Genevieve 
I have had fifteen years. 

The Nukse 

She has had fifteen years come Whit- 
suntide. My Lady Genevieve had fif- 
teen years when Sir Alain stole her away 
and married her. 

Genevieve 

The key, Grandfather, the key! {She 
caresses The Old Seigneur and whispers 
in his ear,) 

[12] 



CANDLE FLAME 

The Old Seigneur 

This is the key. (He takes it from a 
long gold chain around his neck and gives 
it to her.) This is the key; be careful of 
it, child. 

Genevieve 

Oh! thank you! thank you, Grand- 
father ! (She embraces him joyously, and 
runs quickly into the chateau.) 

The Old Seigneur 

(calling after her) 

Guard it well, my child, guard it well. 

(The Nurse hastens after her into the 
chateau. ) 



[13] 



SCENE II 

The chateau garden. The Old Seig- 
neur is talking with a cavalier. 

The Old Seigneur (mz^^m^Z^/) 

So you are Yalvain, youngest son of 
my old friend. 

The Cavalier 

Yes, Seigneur, I am that son born to 
a broken family during the 'Wars,' when 
fell Tinteniac and my sire in the same 
battle. I came into a house of broken 
fortunes which have been somewhat re- 
trieved. My mxOther has spoken to me of 
your castle in its former grandeur. She 
has told me how, bereft of all by fortune 
of the *Wars,' you live here in this ruined 
chateau and are honored by so doing. 

[14] 



CANDLE FLAME 

Now she has sent me as a suitor for the 
hand of the young daughter of 'Genevieve 
the Fair' and Sir Alain. 

{Genevieve suddenly comes from the cha- 
teau. She does not see The Cavalier, 
who starts to his feet and gazes intently 
at her,) 

Genevieve 

O Grandfather! if you could only see 
me! I am so beautiful! so beautiful! so 
happy! It is a fairy key that opens to 
me all my mother's treasures. {The sun- 
light falls upon her, making her beautiful 
in her gown of green and gold brocade. 
Suddenly she sees The Cavalier — she 
drops the key,) Oh! oh! My dream! 
My waxen image ! 

The Old Seigneur 

'Tis little Genevieve of whom we spoke 
but now. She is a good child, obedient 

[15] 



CANDLE FLAME 

and affectionate, though sometimes wilful ; 
and has not much of beauty — so her nurse 
tells me. 

The Cavalier 

Ha! By my faith she lies! or has no 
eyes for beauty — for when I saw her my 
heart was like to strangle me. Such 
beauty have I not seen till now I 

The Old Seigneur 

Ah! So? 'Tiswell. This gentleman, 
my child, is Sir Yalvain, the son of an old 
friend. Ere many days have passed you 
two shall wed, and I may give up care, 
and die in peace. 

Come, child, are you not satisfied ? He 
seems a goodly man and godly, as he is 
his mother's son. Come, give The Cava- 
lier your hand, and let me hear you speak. 

{Genevieve approaches timidly and gives 

her hand,) 

[16] 



CANDLE FLAME 

Genevieve 

Pardon, pardon, Grandfather. It is all 
strange to me, as if I dreamed it in the 
middle of the night. 

The Old Seigneur 

What ? What ? What's this about the 
middle of the night? Is it not broad day? 

{The Serving 31 an brings wine.) 

The Serving Man 
The wine is served, Seigneur. 

(With some difficulty The Old Seigneur 
rises to his feet, assisted on either side 
by Genevieve arid Sir Yalvain.) 

The Old Seigneur 

Give me the wine, that I may drink 
your healths. {Genevieve gives him the 
wine. He raises the cup to his lips.) A 

[17] 



CANDLE FLAME 

long life and a joyous life — as long as 
mine, with more of ease. {He drinks. 
. . . The silver cup shakes in his hand and 
falls.) Yalvain! Give me your arm. 
. . . Oh! oh! 'Tis Death! {He sinks 
back into his chair, trying to speak aloud. 
Sir Yalvain stoops to listen. ) I trust her 
to you, Yalvain ... 

{Genevieve falls sobbing on her knees, lay- 
ing her hands on his. The Nurse comes 
hobbling from the chateau where she 
has been listening.) 

The Nurse 

The priest! the priest! Go fetch the 
priest ! 

SiE Yalvain 

The surgeon. Go fetch the surgeon. 



[18] 



CANDLE FLAME 

The Nurse 

'Tis Death! Go fetch the priest! 
{She speaks aside with The Serving 
Man, ) 

The Old Seigneur (faintly) 

The priest ... the priest. . . . The 
wine is spilt. The drinking cup is fallen. 
... It is Death. 



[19] 



ACT III 

SCENE I 

Before the curtain rises the chanting of 
the ''Miserere'' is heard. 

The curtain rises, showing an avenue 
in the forest. A funeral jjrocession has 
gone by. The chanting is heard down the 
forest. A procession of nuns passes, 
bearing candles. The chanting can be 
heard fainter and fainter down the 
avenues of the wood. Silence for a few 
moments. . . . 

The curtain falls. 



[20] 



SCENE II 

The shrine in the forest. The Woman 
sits uyon the large flat stone. Sir YaU 
vain stands before her. 

The Woman speaks — as she speaks, she 
grows heautiful — a glitter as of gold 
shows when her long cloak falls open. 

The Woman 

Did I sin more than you? Because I 
am a woman and frail, does that make my 
sin more? Because — a woman may be a 
mother — because a mother may be divine 
— because — because our Christ was born 
of Woman? Yes — ves, 'tis true. ... A 
woman's sin is more than man's because of 
Mary. {The sunlight falls upon the 
shrine and, refracting, touches her,) 

'Tis not for you or for the lack of you 
[21] 



CANDLE FLAME 

I grieve; no, it is something else. . . . 
What? ... I forget. ... I made an 
image out of wax. ... I made a virgin 
wear it next her heart — {She pauses, 
, . . A look of utter hlankness comes into 
her face.) Why? Why? ... I have 
forgotten something. . . . Oh! Because 
'revenge is sweet' I have heard somewhere 
. . . 'revenge is sweet.' 

The image is hke you, and I could melt 
your life away — and play with it, . . . 
now fast, . . . now slow. {She laughs,) 
I had a lover once. . . . Oh! oh! why can 
I not remember? I know — it is the pearl 
I miss . . . the pearl I wore so long. 
. . . I lost it somewhere in this wood. 
{She kneels and searches among the fallen 
leaves.) I get so tired searching among 
the dead leaves, among the fallen twigs. 
It was so white, ... so pure, . . . and 
it was mine, ... all mine, . . . and there 
was something else . . . something . . . 

[22] 



CANDLE FLAME 

I remember ! There was pain ! ... I re- 
member ... I was in a tomb, . . . noth- 
ing but walls and silence. . . . Oh! that 
silence. ... I shrieked to it, . . . and no 
one heard. . . . Oh! oh! I want my 
j^earl. ... I want happiness. Do you 
think that I may find it if I search always? 

{Genevieve comes singing through the 
wood. Sir Yalvain slips away among 
the trees,) 

Genevie^ts ( singing ) 

'And as the candles burned away, 
Their souls went up to God 

At early morn or close of day 
As prayers go up to God.' 

{She meets The Woman and they walk 
slowly up and down the path and sit to- 
gether at the foot of the shrine,) 

[23] 



CANDLE FLAME 

Genevieve 

I have been here three days at sunset 
time to find you. Such things have hap- 
pened as never happened in the hfe of 
mortal maid before. They happened all 
at once, at the same moment. I have a 
lover and my grandfatlier has died. He 
gave me to Sir Yalvain and he died. 
{The Woman looks at her intently. As 
she looks a smile grows on her face. ) All 
happened in a moment as I tell you. Do 
you remember my saying that the image 
looked like some one I had known in 
dreams? It was Sir Yalvain. I had 
grown to love the image from wearing it 
close to my heart. So — when he came, I 
loved him. Is it not beautiful? 

{The Woman sits with hands clasjjed on 
her knees. She looks at her wide eyed 
and sorrowful. ) 

[24] 



CANDLE FLAME 

The Woman 
I know not — is love beautiful? 

Genevieve 

Oh ! beautiful ! My heart has grown so 
large and kind. I love all things. I am 
so happy that if I die to-night, I shall go 
straight to heaven. {She clasps her 
hands and gazes upward,) I feel, I am 
already there. ... Is not love beautiful? 

The Woman 

I know not ... is it so? Is it a pearl? 
I lost a pearl ... I lost it somewhere in 
this wood. 

Genevie\t: 

My grandfather has told me of a pearl 
beyond all price; perhaps it is that pearl. 

The Woman 

I do not know. ... I have forgotten. 
[25] 



CANDLE FLAME 

Genevieve 

It was the waxen image made me think 
of love. I pray you let me have my way 
with it — to mould it to a candle to burn 
before the shrine. 

The Woman 

I made it of a candle. A sacred can- 
dle that burned before the altar Easter 
morn. See! see! The wick is there; if 
you but scrape a bit of wax you'll find it, 
and it will burn as clear a flame, as clear 
a flame as any candle . . . {she trembles) 
as clear ... as clear a flame. . . . O! 
Mary! Mother Mary!! {she crosses her- 
self) I took it from the altar Easter morn. 

Genevieve 

I read a book which said that as the 
candles burned, all sin was burned away. 

[26] 



CANDLE FLAME 

I made a little song about it as I came 
through the wood. {She sings) 

'And as the candles burned away, 
Their souls went up to God 

At early morn or close of day 
As prayers go up to God.' 

{In the black shadows of the wood Sir 
Yalvain stands and listens, Genevieve 
touches The Woman's hand.) 

And may I have the image to do with 
as I will? 

The Woman 

Yes ! Yes ! You may have it to burn 
. . . to burn. . . . How goes the song? 
*And as the candle burns so sin is burned 
awav' ? 

Genevieve 

Sometimes I used to be afraid of you, 
but now I love you. Where Love is, there 

[27] 



CANDLE FLAME 

is no room for fear. Love is so great, 
there is no room for anything but Love. 

{She kisses her. The setting sun throws 
a rose light over The Virgin, over The 
Woman and Genevieve,) 



[28] 



The same scene — a little later. The 
Woman is not there. The Man stands in 
the shadow. The light is sombre after the 
sun has set. The image hums before the 
shrine, 

Genevieve {praying) 

Hail, Mary! Gracious Mother! Hail, 
Mary! Queen of Heaven! The book 
said, *As the candles burn so sin is burned 
away!' O Mother! make the flame burn 
all my sins away. I am so often wilful. 
. . . And if the thing be possible that he 
has sinned, let his sins burn with mine, so 
that w^e both be pure. Oh! make my 
grandfather to know that he did well to 
trust me to Sir Yalvain . . . for that I 
love him, and am happy in my love. That 
all is well with little Genevieve. 

O Holy Mother! See how the candle 
[29] 



CANDLE FLAME 

burns! The flame is clear ... I feel 
myself grow pure ... I feel the wings 
of angels touch my head ... I seem so 
near to God. 

{Sir Yalvain steps froiii behind the trees. 
He crosses hiinself. He kneels behind 
her . . . and bows his head.) 



[30] 



The same scene. Later, The forest is 
quite dark. The image hums low. The 
Woman is alone. She kneels before the 
shrine and prays in broken, interrupted 
sentences. 

The Woman 

O Holy Mother! Mary! Mother! 
look upon me, for I am Woman, too, and 
worn — and faint — with grief. . . . Once 
I loved. The world was Sanctuary ! All 
things seemed made of purity. . . . 'Twas 
such as Heaven must be. . . . And I the 
centre ... as if I also might be the 
Mother of a Christ! 

... I could hear the angels singing — 
'Holy! Holy! Holy!' And then . . . 
I have forgotten ... I have forgotten. 
. . . But I search always . . . because 

[31] 



CANDLE FLAME 

. . . {she sobs) because . . . my arms 
are empty. 

{The image flares and goes out. The 
moon rises slowly behind the sitting Vir- 
gin, It makes a halo around her head. 
The light falls ifi soft radiance over the 
kneeling woman. The Virgin leans 
and lays the little Christ witliin her 
arms, A halo slowly grows about The 
Woman's head,) 



[32] 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
THE BOOK OF THE SERPENT 



"That piquant book of wisdom touched with 
subtle humor." — Revieio of Reviews. 

"Replete with subtle humor and sparkling wit." 
— Boston Herald. 

"The genius of it is . . . there is no effect of 
blasphemy." — Hartford Courant. 

"A type of reading as rare as it is delicious." 
— Hexry L. Southwick, President of Emerson 
College of Oratory. 

"She has no dull spots. She is crisp, condensed, 
and altogether delightful, but deep, with the 
philosophy of all things now and to come." — 
Merrick Whitcomb in Cincinnati Times-Star. 

"Original, piquant, delicately cynical. . . . These 
are cryptic pages, innocent of chapter headings, 
introduction or notes, anything, in fact, to spoil 
so slyly gnomic a work by any condescension to 
the stupid. There is no denying that at times this 
little book wears the astonishing aspect of an in- 
dividual creation of a world-myth. ... A unique 
morsel of sly humor for the elect." — New York 
Times. 

"A delectable little book. . . . One gets here 
the picture of a sort of up-to-date Bergsonian 
Creator, at work in his laboratory." — Heading a 
several page quotation from the book in Current 
Opinion. 

$1.00 net; by mail, $1.05 

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Publishers 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
EVE 



"Eve is a superb expression of the new femi- 
nism of our times. It embodies a great idea 
greatly conveyed." — Johk Haynes Holmes. 

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fundamentals of the question, nothing reaching to 
its heights of prophetic and ethical vision and 
passion has been produced by an American 
writer" — Lewis J. Duncan in Montana Socialist. 

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land. 

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of a tree moved by winds of varying force." 

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with the reader an impressive echo like that of a 
deep bronze bell." — Frederick Orin Bartlett. 

"Eve is also for the elect. It is an epic of the 
beginning and the end, too serious in its solemn 
slow music to give us humor. It is the voice dimly 
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the groping toward certain nobler races now dimly 
imagined." 

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